Merchant Seamen

[happy daze john in oz]

lived in shields with my granny in the 5os andin 64 still had outside dunny

The house in Sunderland that my GGF lived in still ahd an outside dunny until 1968.

[cappy]

sunderland always wos years behind shields mind lol cappy

[Lou Barron]

the accommodation on the Duchess of Bedford for us deck boys was like being in a oven in the tropics as these CPR ships was built for the North Atlantic run the cabin we was in no port holes the only ventilation was a blower that was it blew out hot air instead of cold air we sometimes we would sleep on deck if possible .On the Gloucester Castle the accommodation was a open area firemen on the starboard side deck crowd on the port side it was no joy when trying to get to sleep when of watch .One nobody as mentioed the asbestos covering pipes that use to run through the ships the mention of asbestos is a no no now .Ican remember a doctor telling many years ago the rate of tuberculosis among seamen was very high

[E.Martin]

Going back to drifting again,when dinner was served the cook would put all the meat and veg on the cabin table
no one wood take anything untill the skipper had got what he wanted the mate and chief were next in line,every one got a meal but they had first choice.
The Skipper was addressed as Skipper or Bloke never did find out where bloke came from.
Remember while working from Aberdeen I think somewhere near the Viking Deeps we shot then the weather
turned bad we could not haul our nets because of the bad weather eventually after 2 days the weather abated
and we did haul, all the nets were spoilt and any fish were dead that was the only time I see a Skipper worried.
Memories!!.

[R551286]

The Port boats had some of the best crew quarters in the fifties.I think I had more
single berths than others,even the older ships had decent cabins ,never had anything over
twin berth I was in catering but the same applied to the rest of the crew.

[Keith Moody]

when i left the Ruahine, myself and another steward ( Dennis Holttum ) went to join the "Highland Monarch", we trooped on board saw the chief steward and were awarded a cabin, this we proceeded too in the bowles of the ship, I went to open the door and a voice said "hold on" then "OK". i opened the door and found a small cabin that had 6 bunks. 2 down either side of the door frame at the end of these bunks were another set of bunks across the back of the cabin, under each of the bunks were a set of drawers. no port hole or air conditioning as she was too old, it seemed that if someone woanted to come into the cabin, basicaly all would have to sit in their bunks. we then had a look around the ship and discovered that all the decks were holystoned every day including the dinning saloon, without another thought we turned around and walked down the gangway, I can just imagine what the interior of that ship must have felt like durring the tropics.
keith moody
R635978

[Wagga]

Came off watch one night and was a bit hungry so went to the dining hall. It was in total darkness since it was late. On switching the lights on I was confronted with an amazing scene; swarming all over the solitary loaf that had been left out for watchkeepers were hundreds of cockroaches which scattered to every nook and cranny available on my entrance. Did I just switch the lights out and call it a day? No, I cut all the edges of the loaf off before cutting a couple of slices and toasting them whilst being watched by hundreds of tiny eyes. You could see some of the feelers of the bigger ones sticking out of screw holes etc.

At least I had my own cabin (shared with some cockroaches)

[Keith at Tregenna]

New kids on the block then, told they were steam Flies - Mostly Haemless ?

Would shake the boxes before serving break my fast ?

Still cannot face cereals in the morning:

K.

[Tony Wilding]

have experienced Cock Roaches , Flies, Hornets, Mosquitos at sea, never heard of a Steam Fly ?

[j.sabourn]

All considered fresh meat by some. Cheers John Sabourn